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There's a short video walkthrough for each app: PictoWave and PictoWave Pro.
Found a bug? PictoWave was debugged hand in hand with our beta testers, and what they found is fixed. Even so, one or two may have slipped through. If something behaves oddly, write to support@pictowave.com and we'll get on it.
Pro Tools 2025.06 or later, Studio or Ultimate, on macOS 13 or later. Both apps ship as universal binaries and run natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. PictoWave runs comfortably on any of them; for PictoWave Pro's video engine, Apple Silicon gives the smoothest playback, and on Intel Macs the preview automatically adapts its resolution to the graphics hardware.
No. PictoWave and PictoWave Pro are supported on Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate only.
No. PictoWave overlays Pro Tools' own Video window, nothing extra required. And PictoWave Pro doesn't need one either: pop its video out into an independent macOS window and put it on any display you like. Got Blackmagic hardware, a DeckLink card or an UltraStudio box? PictoWave Pro can drive a true dedicated video monitor through it, but it's never required. Fully tested with the UltraStudio Monitor 3G; other DeckLink and UltraStudio models should work the same way, just not individually verified yet.
To activate PictoWave on a computer, yes. Once activated, it runs offline. During the free trial, the app also needs to reach the license server from time to time.
Not yet, but it's a planned evolution. Subscribe to the newsletter to be kept posted.
On any audio track or stem bus you want to see: voice-over track, dialog stem, music stem... What you insert it on is what you get. It's that simple. In PictoWave Pro, add a second plug-in on another stem and you get the second waveform.
No. PictoWave learns whatever track holds its plug-in. Insert it on any audio track or stem bus you want to see, make a selection on the timeline, and click Learn. Nothing to route, nothing to undo afterwards.
No. PictoWave runs with no macOS permission at all, and never shows a system prompt: "Snap to Pro Tools Video" and the pin locate Pro Tools' video window without needing Screen Recording. PictoWave Pro uses Accessibility for two optional things (the "Configure automatically" step of Getting Started, and faster dual-bus waveform Learns), but you can set Machine Control up by hand and skip it entirely.
If you do grant Accessibility to PictoWave Pro, you can revoke it right after and the app keeps working.
Yes, and it takes one Learn. The waveform of the guide track shows the actor the line before it arrives: start point, length, where the breaths fall, where it ends. Your usual beeps and streamer still give the in-point; the waveform adds everything after it.
It is not a rythmo band and does not try to be: lip-sync dubbing needs the text itself, which a waveform will never carry. But for ADR or voice-over over an existing guide track, it gives the shape of the line with no prep pass to run first. Actor and engineer work from the same cue.
No, in either app: the waveform itself is stored inside the Pro Tools session, so it comes back with it, on any machine. Learn again when the mix has changed enough that you want the picture to match.
That doesn't mean re-learning the whole reel. In PictoWave Pro, use the dedicated Learn & Insert Pro Tools Selection button, next to the main Learn button: it learns only the selected range and drops it into the waveform already in place, leaving everything around it untouched. On a reel that takes minutes to learn in full, a scene takes seconds. In PictoWave, there's only one Learn button, and it already scopes to whatever's selected in Pro Tools, so this happens automatically.
Your display settings travel with the session too, in both apps, as long as "Restore waveform's look from session" is checked: in PictoWave Pro, each band's colour, height, position, gain and name; in PictoWave, the waveform and playhead colours, background opacity, outline, amplitude, lookahead and playhead position. Uncheck it and your own settings stay put, whatever the session holds.
Everything PictoWave keeps in your session (the learned waveforms, and in PictoWave Pro the imported videos and each band's look) is stored inside the PictoWave plug-in itself, and saved with it. While the session is open, you're safe: remove the plug-in, move it to another track, re-insert it an hour later, and the app hands everything straight back. But if the session gets saved and closed with no PictoWave plug-in left in it, the session file simply has nowhere to keep that data, and reopening it starts blank. So the one rule: keep at least one PictoWave insert in the session, and if you removed it, re-insert it before you save and close. If the work is already lost, re-import the videos and Learn again; Batch Learn makes it quick.
Yes, in PictoWave Pro: dialog and music, for instance, each with its own colour, height, position and name. Insert one plug-in per track to learn; the first one drives waveform 1, the second waveform 2.
Each band carries an Include in Learn checkbox. Uncheck one and Learn leaves that waveform exactly as it is, so you can redo the dialog without touching the music.
No. Batch Learn walks through every reel in one go.
That one isn't PictoWave's doing: it comes from a bug in Pro Tools itself, and a fix is expected in an upcoming Pro Tools version. Nothing to set up or change on your side in the meantime.
Yes. PictoWave Pro was designed around Pro Tools sessions made of several reels: import multiple videos and each one plays in sync with its own reel, including on Pro Tools Studio.
ProRes, DNxHD/HR, H.264, HEVC, MPEG-2 and MJPEG, in MOV, MP4, MXF, MKV or AVI containers. Playback is smooth with all of them.
For scrubbing and jogging, ProRes and DNxHD/HR are the ones to use. They store every frame in full, so moving to any position decodes a single frame. The others (H.264, HEVC, MPEG-2) keep one full frame every so often and rebuild the rest from it, so a fast scrub has to decode a run of frames for each position and the picture falls behind the waveform. ProRes and DNxHD/HR are also the formats Avid recommends for Pro Tools video, so a reel already prepared for your session is already in the right format.
All the reels of one session have to share the same frame rate, because the video output runs at a single fixed rate for the whole session.
Yes. Turn on Display timecode on the console and the session timecode appears on the image, in the pop-out window and on the card output alike. Size, horizontal and vertical position, and the darkness of the box behind it are yours to set, and they stay set the next time you open the app.
It reads the session timecode, so it matches what Pro Tools shows.
To know where the playhead is whenever Pro Tools' transport is stopped: scrubbing, dragging a clip, or clicking to relocate the edit cursor.
Only to detect Half-Speed Playback. Setting it up is optional: skip it if you never use Half-Speed Playback. As with MMC, this only concerns PictoWave Pro.
No more than the Avid video engine does. But since PictoWave Pro is a video engine independent from Pro Tools, Pro Tools' own "Video Sync Offset" has no effect on it.
This message means Machine Control isn't wired up. The usual causes: Setup → Peripherals → Machine Control isn't pointed at "PictoWave Pro", the Synchronization preferences aren't set, or Pro Tools was launched before PictoWave Pro, which resets the port selection since PictoWave Pro's MIDI port only exists while it's running. Click "Configure automatically" in Getting Started, or set it up by hand from there, then launch PictoWave Pro first next time. To stop having to think about the order, turn on "Launch PictoWave Pro at login" in the app's Settings: PictoWave Pro then starts with your Mac, so its MIDI port already exists whenever you open Pro Tools.
Check, in order: a PictoWave plug-in is inserted on an active track in the open session (the status pills in PictoWave Pro should read "Following Pro Tools", not "Waiting for Pro Tools…"); Machine Control is set up (Setup → Peripherals → Machine Control → "PictoWave Pro"); PictoWave Pro was launched before Pro Tools; and Pro Tools' Preferences → Operation → "Audio During Fast Forward/Rewind" is on, since without it Pro Tools sends no position during an actual rewind or fast-forward. One more case: if you've scrubbed the reel or waveform by hand inside PictoWave Pro, an orange "Manual" pill appears and the app deliberately stays detached until you move Pro Tools' transport again.
One Pro Tools preference decides it: Setup → Preferences → Operation → "Audio During Fast Forward/Rewind". It ships off, and while it is off Pro Tools reports nothing during the gesture, which is the only way PictoWave Pro can know where you are. The picture simply waits where it was until the transport stops. Turn it on, or let "Configure automatically" in Getting Started do it for you.
And yes, we know: a wind you can hear is not a pleasant sound. Today it is the only way in. Avid's Satellite Link protocol would let us drop this preference altogether, and that is where we would like to go.
Update Blackmagic's Desktop Video software to its latest version, from blackmagicdesign.com/support. If the issue persists after that, get in touch and tell us the exact card model.
No. The file is read, then deleted, even if the analysis fails. A leftover from a crash is swept away at the next launch. If you'd rather the bounce file was written somewhere other than your system disk, the folder is configurable: in PictoWave via Help → Debug, in PictoWave Pro via Settings (the gear icon) → Bounce Work Folder. Both show the current folder (your system's temp folder by default), a "Choose Folder…" button to point it somewhere else, and a "Use Default" button to go back.
Never. The analysis happens on your machine, and your audio never leaves it. The app only phones home for the license, a version check at launch, and a crash report if you choose to send one.
Yes, and here is exactly what. To stay active on a silent chain, the insert adds a dither-level noise at -142 dBFS peak. It is added only when the incoming signal is quieter than the noise itself, so it never mixes with your content, and never in an offline render: a bounce or a Learn comes out digitally silent. In a real-time print of a silent passage, on a 24-bit file, this measures as isolated samples at 1 LSB on about 3 % of samples, around -153 dBFS RMS, completely inaudible.
Why it is there: Pro Tools suspends plug-ins on silent chains (Dynamic Plug-in Processing), which would freeze your picture. The noise keeps the insert alive.
Yes, both apps include a 14-day free trial, full-featured, no credit card required to start. Download the apps here.
Yes. One payment, no subscription, nothing recurring. Updates to the major version you buy (all 1.x releases for a version 1 license) are free. If we one day release an entirely new major version, it may be offered as an optional paid upgrade; your current version keeps working either way, and what you bought is yours for good.
One activation per license. You can release it from within the app to move it to another machine, so changing computers costs you nothing.
Yes, upgrade to PictoWave Pro at any time for €105.00 instead of the full €169.99 price (20% VAT included, may vary by country; $100 instead of $159.99, excl. tax). Enter your PictoWave key on the upgrade page and you get a single-use discount code. Once the upgrade is bought, the PictoWave license is retired and PictoWave Pro takes over: you pay the price of PictoWave Pro in total, and end up with one license instead of two.
No. The plug-in is signed for Pro Tools, but the license lives in the apps and needs no dongle and no iLok account.
The apps stop following Pro Tools and tell you why. Nothing you've done disappears: your waveforms live in the Pro Tools session (reels too, with PictoWave Pro), and they come straight back the day you buy a license.
Still stuck? Get in touch. Include your Pro Tools version and what you were doing, it saves a round trip.